A gang member who was involved in the fight told police that it occurred because the suspects were Asian Crips, and he and his group were Oroville Mono Boys, according to the complaints.

Another gang member said he didn’t see the fight, but after the first gunshot he turned and saw people running. He witnessed a man chasing Vue and heard additional shots.

The complaints do not spell out whether Vue was part of the initial fight, and a police spokesman said he doesn’t know if that has been determined.

Jacky G. Vue, 19, of St. Paul, was shot during the Hmong Freedom Festival at Como Regional Park in St. Paul on Sunday, July 1, 2018, and he died at the hospital. (Courtesy of Jacky Vue family)

One of the suspects, though, told an investigator that two men hit him and his cousin with umbrellas and threatened to kill them, and Nougai Xiong shot one of the men a couple of times, according to the complaints.

People working in a refreshment vending tent said they heard gunshots and saw Vue running toward their tent. He ran around back, collapsed and gasped for air, the complaints said. He was shot in the chest and leg, and died at Regions Hospital at 6 p.m. Sunday.

SEARCH LEADS TO MAN ‘SWEATING PROFUSELY’

Officers working at the festival “converged on the area when they heard the gunfire,” encountered numerous gang members and detained them while they investigated, the complaints said. Police found umbrellas, including broken ones, scattered in the area and three casings stamped “FC 9MM LUGER.”

A witness reported the shooter was wearing a blue shirt. He and another man chased the shooter and a man with him, but they stopped when the shooter turned around with the gun in his hands.

An officer on bicycle patrol rode toward the gunshots and asked people who and where the shooter was. Various people said the shooter wore a blue shirt and two told the officer which way he ran.

Reserve officers reported seeing a man take off a blue shirt and one reported that he was now wearing a white shirt. A man with him wore black.

As officers in a golf cart searched the area, they stopped two men who matched the witness descriptions, according to the complaints. They identified them as Nougai Xiong and Yang Xiong, of La Crosse, Wis.

Nougai Xiong, who was wearing a white T-shirt, “was sweating profusely as if he had just finished running a marathon, and he had a long fresh scratch on the left side of his neck,” the complaints said. He told police he had been struck from behind and fled with his cousin before they were stopped by police.

Yang Xiong, of La Crosse, Wis., was carrying an umbrella and wearing a black jacket, the complaints said. He reported someone hit him on the back of his head with an umbrella.

Yang Xiong said a group of men asked him and his cousin what gang they were in and he told them they were not in a gang, “but the group approached the two cousins and began punching and kicking them,” according to the complaints. He said they got away and ran out of the gate.

Yang Xiong told police he recognized several of the men who assaulted them as belonging to a branch of the Oroville Mono Boys gang from Wisconsin.

Police arrested Nougai Xiong and Yang Xiong.

COUSIN SAYS THERE WAS WISCONSIN CONFRONTATION

Later, when Yang Xiong was speaking with a homicide investigator, he said he thought he recognized a group at the festival from an incident in Wausau, Wis., two months earlier.

He said he was at a party and people confronted him and asked what gang he was in. They accused him of being in the Purple Brothers gang, but Yang Xiong “was able to convince them that he did not claim any gang membership and he was neutral,” according to the complaints.

At the festival, after Yang Xiong said they were threatened and Nougai Xiong shot one of the men, they started running, according to the complaints.

Yang Xiong said his cousin threw his blue shirt to him after he took it off, and Nougai Xiong hid the gun by a pine tree, according to the complaints. Yang Xiong directed police to a wooded area to the southwest of Estabrook Drive and Lexington Parkway, and officers found a pistol with a round in the chamber that was stamped “FC 9MM LUGER.”

Yang Xiong told police that Nougai Xiong was an Asian Crip, but Nougai Xiong denied it to investigators. He said Yang Xiong told him he had been in a confrontation with other people at the festival in the past, according to the complaints.

Nougai Xiong reported he did not know who was shooting, he did not have a gun and did not hear gunshots. He also said he had not been wearing a blue shirt.

HOW TO HELP

Mara Gottfried has been a Pioneer Press reporter since 2001, mostly covering public safety. Gottfried lived in St. Paul as a young child and returned to the Twin Cities after graduating from the University of Maryland. You can reach her at 651-228-5262.

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